"A combination of police crackdowns and bad weather are testing the young Occupy movement. But rumors of its demise are premature, to say the least. Although numbers are hard to come by, anecdotal evidence suggests the movement is growing.

As importantly, the movement has already changed the public debate in America.

Consider, for example, last week’s Congressional Budget Office report on widening disparities of income in America. It was hardly news – it’s already well known that the top 1 percent now gets 20 percent of the nation’s income, up from 9 percent in the late 1970s.

But it’s the first time such news made the front page of the nation’s major newspapers.

Why? Because for the first time in more than half a century, a broad cross-section of the American public is talking about the concentration of income, wealth, and political power at the top.

"Julian Assange, the mercurial founder of WikiLeaks and anarchist extraordinaire, made a surprise appearance at London’s Saint Paul’s Cathedral today to address crowds of protesters occupying the city’s financial district.

Outside Paternoster Square, along Ludgate Hill Road, a sea of people thronged behind a line of riot cops, unable to access the heart of the protest. As Assange and his security detail made its way from the back of the square, through the police cordon and past the Marks & Spencer and Starbucks, cheers erupted from the crowd—which included members of the hacktivist collective Anonymous who helped organize the event and who turned up sporting devilish Guy Fawkes masks. Assange—dressed in his typical attire of a leather jacket and blue jeans—reached the cathedral stairs, and protesters thronged before him. “Sit down, sit down!” people cried."

My young son-in-law who is an air traffic controller at Oakland County airport just called to tell me he landed some of the candidates today.
He thought it interesting that Romney and Herman Cain shared a big Gulfstream. Speculating that they may end up aRomney/Cain ticket.
Others (Gingrich and Perry) came in separately on smaller private planes.

I guess the others must have flown commercial and landed at Detroit Metro.

"He thought it interesting that Romney and Herman Cain shared a big Gulfstream."

Thanks, SWarren. Coordination and planning of a joint effort requires that the principals spend time together. It's a very thrifty move on their part and I commend their efforts to maximize efficiency while saving money on travel expenses.

Laura Ingraham irked me in the small amount of time I listened to her this morning. First of all she was teeing off on Kasich and the ineffectiveness of his message without mentioning the Duke & Duke contributions by the state party deciding to pull in different directions. Plus she's got a lot of gall in talking about "ineffectiveness" of a message considering she dropped a large watt station a couple years ago for some tinkertoy shitbox in Elyria which is impossible to get good reception of on the east side.

ChaCo, are you an Amida Buddhist? I have always found that branch to be beautifully inspired.

May Agent J's wife rest in peace.

Over here in Asia, more economic concern. A lot of major businessmen are very deeply concerned. The electronics industry is down and even without the specter of Europe we are looking at 2H/2012 for an upturn.

Best thing to do is tend one's knitting. Focus on that which you can effect. In the meantime, Europe is playing its game out.

This is why I feel that whatever is happening now, the game will change over the next 60 days. The left is keeping the Occupy movement alive to use it as a spark and to deflect blame for its incredible financial mismanagement of each country's resources.

The votes in Ohio and elsewhere for the unions are going to come crashing home when regular working people realize they have been snookered by an unholy combination of crooked politicians, crooked businesspeople, and crooked unions.

The big message out of all of this is that if you follow the rules, you're a rube under the current state of play. If we are to ever regain our self respect, the rule of law must be brought back to bear without fear or favor, unlike today's adversarial and corrupt environment.

Today, the Federal Communications Commission announced that a handful of cable companies will offer discounted rates to low-income families — defined as those families that qualify for free school lunches. Families that qualify for free or reduced-price lunches will also be able to purchase low-cost computers.

Sigh is right CC. This accelerating trend toward dual pricing of the cost of living in a society is not going to end well. Like folks from the French revolution up through OWS, when we finally cut off their free stuff, they will cut off our heads.

I'm not terribly concerned about the lice ridden Obamaville slacker corps. Burning down Blue Hells seems rather redundant and more than a little stupid with the OPM supply gone but what can you expect from Pitzer grads.

Chicago is showing good potential and there have to be some Cook County issues on the verge.

Ok, I'm naive, but why was this apartment development, "The Clare at Water Tower, a 53-story apartment building with Lake Michigan views and near luxury retailers north of downtown," financed with municipal bonds? The article linked by Rick doesn't provide any indication. I presume this is just the Chicago way of doing business.

Well, I like the debate. I think any of the above are certainly better than Obama. At this moment, I think Newt might be the best answer, although Romney is doing well and his hair is mussed which is a "plus."